Latvia legalises documents electronically and nothing else. Since 1 July 2019 a sworn notary places the apostille, and the apostille itself is issued only in electronic form. A Georgian Public Service Hall counter expects paper. That mismatch, plus the question of whether to legalise a Latvian or a Russian language version of an older certificate, accounts for most of the delay Latvian applicants hit. Georgia's half of the job is the simple half.
Can you enter Georgia, and for how long?
Yes, for one full year at a time. Latvia appears by name on the list annexed to the Georgian ordinance approving visa-free entry, which fixes the permitted stay at one full year and was last amended on 24 February 2026. We read that text on 1 August 2026, and it is the instrument Georgian border officers apply rather than any summary of it.
One caution that applies to Latvia and to almost nowhere else. The ordinance lists states and their citizens. If you hold a Latvian non-citizen's alien's passport rather than a Latvian citizen's passport, we cannot tell you from that text how you will be treated, and we will not guess on a page you would act on. Put your specific travel document to a Georgian diplomatic mission before you book, and get the answer in writing.
Two conditions ride on the entry itself for everyone. From 2026 every visitor needs travel or health insurance carrying at least GEL 30,000 of cover, checked at the border under the 2026 insurance rule. And the year of visa-free stay is presence rather than status, so it accrues nothing toward permanent residence however many times you reset it.
Which route actually fits a Latvian applicant
Georgia's routes, thresholds and government fees do not move with your passport. What moves is how much of your file has to be legalised, and for a Latvian every legalisation is an electronic one.
The property route at $150,000 and the investment route ask for no home-country criminal record certificate. For a Latvian that is worth more than it looks, because it removes the electronic apostille from the schedule rather than merely shortening it.
Everyone else lands on the work or IT routes, and since 1 March 2026 both sit behind a second permit. The Special Labour Permit is a prerequisite rather than a parallel filing, so a residence permit application submitted before the labour permit has been granted produces a refusal instead of a queue position. Latvian freelancers invoicing Riga clients from a Tbilisi flat are inside that sequence too once they want the card, though foreign clients on their own engage no permit at all.
The IT residence permit suits a good share of the Latvian cohort, at $25,000 of annual income, two years of experience and a three-year term. The threshold that catches people is the two years of experience rather than the income, because it has to be evidenced with documents rather than described. Read the condition of 183 days a year in Georgia before choosing the route, and if the shape of your case is not obvious, a free consultation is cheaper than a refused application.
Which language version to legalise, and why the apostille is electronic
This is the section the guide exists for, and both halves of it are specific to Latvia.
The apostille is electronic only. Sworn notaries have legalised Latvian documents with an apostille since 1 July 2019, at any notarial office across 30 towns, and the fee is 25.34 euros including the state fee and VAT. The apostille itself is carried out only in electronic form. You bring the paper original and your passport or identity card to the office, the notary processes it, and the result is an electronic apostille that can be verified through the register maintained by the Council of Sworn Notaries.
Georgian counters work on paper. So the thing to do at the appointment, before anything is issued, is to say the document is going to a non-EU authority that expects a physical file and ask the notary exactly what you will be able to carry away and how a Georgian official is meant to verify it. That is a question for a Latvian notary rather than for us: we can tell you the mismatch exists and that it is the single most common reason a Latvian file stalls, and we would be inventing a rule if we told you which physical output a given Public Service Hall officer will accept.
Legalise the Latvian-language version. The Information Centre of the Ministry of the Interior issues the certificate of criminal record at 10.40 euros within five business days, or 20.80 euros on the express procedure returning it the next working day. It can be ordered in Latvian or in English, with the English translation charged as a separate line at 6.40 or 12.80 euros, and international postal delivery is 10.90 euros. Order the Latvian version. It is the document the apostille attaches to, and since Georgia needs a Georgian translation regardless, an English one usually buys nothing. You can apply through the Information Centre's portal, by registered mail, by digitally signed email, or through a Latvian diplomatic mission if you are already abroad.
Older documents in Russian should be replaced, not translated. Birth and marriage certificates from the Soviet period are frequently in Russian, and the practical answer is not to legalise a fifty-year-old form. Civil status documents can be requested from any Latvian municipal General Registry office regardless of where the entry was made, or from the Civil Registry Department of the Ministry of Justice, and a repeat certificate is issued on the current Latvian form. Order the repeat certificate, apostille that, and leave the original in the drawer. Re-issue takes up to a month, so start it before anything else in your file.
Translation happens in Georgia, on the document you legalise, after the apostille. What actually gets rejected is set out in the full apostille sequence, the police certificate procedures by country and the rules on certified translation.
What Latvia does when you leave
Declaring your residence abroad is how you close the loop. Under the residence declaration rules a person must declare a new place of residence within a month of moving there permanently, and where the place of residence is in a foreign state the duty is met by giving the address to the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs for the Register of Natural Persons. The mechanism is neat: on notification of a foreign address, the declared address of place of residence in Latvia automatically expires. There is a small state fee for declaring a residence, and the process can be done through the state services portal.
Then handle the tax side deliberately. Latvia does not operate a Nordic-style trailing residence rule, and we found no Latvian departure charge on unrealised gains equivalent to the Norwegian or Danish ones. Treat that as the absence of a published equivalent rather than as clearance for your particular holdings: if you own shares, a company or Latvian property, put the position to a Latvian adviser before you set a departure date, and ask them to confirm from what date the State Revenue Service will treat you as non-resident.
None of it is triggered by a Georgian permit as such. It is triggered by where you actually live, which is the same distinction that separates holding a permit from being tax resident on our side of the move.
The treaty position and the citizenship endgame
Georgia's Ministry of Finance publishes 58 double tax treaties in force and Latvia is among them, with a protocol alongside the main agreement. A treaty allocates taxing rights and breaks ties where both countries claim the same income, and it is a materially better position than American, Canadian or Australian applicants have.
A treaty does not make you Georgian tax resident. Georgia's own test is 183 days in a rolling twelve-month window, and it applies whether or not you hold a card.
Citizenship is decided before you start. Latvia permits dual citizenship with EU, EFTA and NATO member states and with Australia, Brazil and New Zealand, plus countries holding a bilateral agreement with Latvia, of which there are currently none. Georgia is in none of those categories. A Latvian citizen who acquires the citizenship of a country outside the permitted list has an obligation to apply to renounce Latvian citizenship within 30 days. Georgia points the same way from its end, since it does not generally permit dual citizenship and expects renunciation, with an exception by presidential decree on state-interest grounds. So the dual citizenship position is settled for you before the question arises, and permanent residence at ten years, which requires renouncing nothing, is the destination.
Timeline, cost and the verdict
Count backwards. Georgian law requires the application to be filed at least 40 calendar days before your lawful stay expires, and anything filed inside that window is refused review rather than assessed. On a work or IT route the labour permit decision sits in front of that again, and the counting rule is in the 40-day rule.
For a Latvian applicant the trigger depends entirely on whether a Soviet-era certificate is in your file. Without one, two months is comfortable. With one, start three months out, because re-issue from the Civil Registry Department can take a month before the notary sees anything. Georgian government fees are identical on every passport, and the full cost breakdown by route covers the state fees alongside ours. How nationality changes the shape of a file is compared across the guides by nationality.
The verdict is works with conditions rather than straightforward, and the conditions are all at the Latvian end. Entry is free for a year, the treaty is in place and the certificate is cheap. What you have to solve is a legalisation system that produces electronic output for an authority that wants paper, and a family document that may be in the wrong language and the wrong century. Solve both before you fly and the rest is ordinary.
Thirty minutes to establish which route fits, what it costs, and whether you have enough time left on your current stay.
See what it costs
Key takeaways
- Latvian citizens enter Georgia visa-free for one full year, verified against the Georgian visa-free ordinance on 1 August 2026.
- Sworn notaries have issued apostilles since 1 July 2019 at EUR 25.34, and the apostille is issued only in electronic form.
- Ask the notary at the appointment what physical output you can carry to a non-EU counter, because a Georgian officer works on paper.
- Legalise the current Latvian-language document. Replace a Soviet-era Russian certificate with a repeat certificate first.
- Re-issue of a civil status certificate can take a month, so start it before anything else in the file.
- The criminal record certificate is EUR 10.40 in five business days or EUR 20.80 overnight, with the English translation charged separately.
- Notifying a foreign address to the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs makes the declared Latvian address expire automatically.
Frequently asked questions
Can Latvian citizens enter Georgia without a visa?
Yes, for one full year at a time, and the period resets when you leave and return. Latvia is listed by name in the annex to the Georgian ordinance on visa-free entry, checked on 1 August 2026. Every visitor also needs travel or health insurance carrying at least GEL 30,000 of cover, which has applied since 2026.
Does the same visa-free rule cover a Latvian non-citizen's passport?
We cannot tell you that from the ordinance, which lists states and their citizens rather than travel document types. Anyone holding an alien's passport rather than a Latvian citizen's passport should put the specific document to a Georgian diplomatic mission and get the answer confirmed before booking travel.
Who issues an apostille in Latvia and what does it cost?
A sworn notary, at any notarial office across 30 towns, and they have held the function since 1 July 2019. The fee is 25.34 euros including the state fee and VAT. You bring the paper original and your identity document, and the apostille is issued electronically and recorded in the register kept by the Council of Sworn Notaries.
Latvia issues apostilles electronically. How does that work for a Georgian filing?
That is the friction point, and the honest answer is to resolve it with the notary rather than at a Tbilisi counter. Tell the notary the document is going to a non-EU authority that works on paper and ask precisely what physical output you can take away and how a foreign official verifies it. We will not tell you what a given Public Service Hall officer accepts, because no published rule settles it.
Should I legalise the Latvian or the Russian version of my birth certificate?
Neither, if the Russian one is a Soviet-era form. Request a repeat certificate from a municipal General Registry office or the Civil Registry Department of the Ministry of Justice, which issues it on the current Latvian form, and apostille that. Where a current Latvian-language document already exists, that is the version to legalise.
Which police certificate does Georgia want from a Latvian applicant?
The certificate of criminal record from the Information Centre of the Ministry of the Interior, then apostilled. Standard issuance is 10.40 euros in five business days and the express procedure is 20.80 euros overnight. Order the Latvian version, because Georgia needs a Georgian translation regardless of whether you also buy an English one.
How do I tell Latvia I have moved abroad?
Give your foreign address to the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs so the Register of Natural Persons is updated. The duty to declare a new place of residence runs to a month after you move there permanently, and on notification of a foreign address your declared Latvian address expires automatically.
Does Latvia charge an exit tax when I leave?
We found no Latvian departure charge on unrealised gains equivalent to the Norwegian or Danish ones, and no trailing residence rule of the Finnish kind. That is the absence of a published equivalent rather than clearance for your holdings, so anyone with shares, a company or Latvian property should confirm the position with a Latvian adviser before fixing a departure date.
Is there a Latvian tax treaty with Georgia?
Yes. Georgia's Ministry of Finance lists 58 treaties in force and Latvia is among them, with a protocol alongside the main agreement. It allocates taxing rights and breaks ties where both states claim the same income, which is a materially better position than American, Canadian or Australian applicants are in.
Can a Latvian citizen work remotely from Georgia without a permit?
Yes. The Special Labour Permit follows who pays you rather than where you sit, so invoicing a Latvian company from Tbilisi does not engage it. The permit is required in three situations: employing foreign staff in Georgia, trading as an Individual Entrepreneur with Georgian clients, and applying for a work or IT residence permit. If you want the residence card, the labour permit comes first whoever your clients are.
Would taking Georgian citizenship cost me my Latvian citizenship?
Yes, on the published rules. Latvia permits dual citizenship with EU, EFTA and NATO states and with Australia, Brazil and New Zealand, and Georgia is in none of those groups. A Latvian citizen who acquires citizenship of a country outside the permitted list must apply to renounce Latvian citizenship within 30 days. Permanent residence in Georgia after ten years requires no renunciation at all.
